Queen guitarist Brian May has thrown his weight behind a campaign to stop a basement excavation under a famous recording studio.

Critics claim noise from the Hampstead development will force the AIR studios to shut for up to six months.

It is because of plans to build a basement leisure complex underneath a listed home in Rosslyn Hill.

The rock legend, who started a campaign against basement excavations in Kensington, branded them a “scourge of residents’ lives”.

And he said of the Hampstead plans: “Its huge basement excavation will be within one metre of the boundaries of Air Studios.

“Given the outstanding contribution to the British Music and Film Industries which Air Studios makes, it is almost unbelievable to me personally that Camden Council has not thrown out this developer’s application already.

“I call on them to reject it outright in the name of decency, and spare the applicants further time and costs in pursuing this selfish and unreasonable application.”

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